Hastings-on-Hudson

From Wikipedia

Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in the southwest part of the town of Greenburgh. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 7,849.[1] It lies on U.S. Route 9, “Broadway” in Hastings. Hastings is a suburb of New York City.

Hastings-on-Hudson is located at 40°59′28″N 73°52′27″W (40.991102, -73.874114)[5] in an area of hills on the Hudson River opposite the Palisades cliffs, north of the city of Yonkers. The village is bordered by the Hudson River to the west, and the Saw Mill River to the east. The areas facing the Hudson River have views of the Palisades and Manhattan to the south.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.9 square miles (7.5 km2), of which 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2) is land and 0.9 square miles (2.3 km2), or 32.65%, is water.

Deer Immunocontraception Project, 2017Deer Tracker Reporting Website: In the middle of the fourth year of the deer immunocontraception study. At of the end of this March, 69 does were captured and immunized since 2014. Eight captured and immunized does have died due to hunting, collisions with cars and other accidents, leaving up to 61 immunized does in or near the Village, which is estimated to be around 70-80% of all does. In the early fall camera trapping will be used again to gather a deer census, and with so many tagged deer, it’s accuracy will be higher than in previous years. This summer, deer that were immunized in 2015 will be re-immunized.

Deer are extremely attentive to human intent and activity, and can tell the difference between a disinterested resident strolling out of their home and someone who is closely monitoring them. They can distinguish individuals and quickly learn the identity of the darting team and their car. They also quickly realize that unusual activity directed at them is underway and probably have a memory or previous years of darting. Hunters know that deer behavior changes dramatically within hours of the onset of a hunting season. So, although casual observation by residents may be that the deer are practically tame, in reality they only behave like that when they perceive the environment to be non-threatening. Hightened wariness is a major challenge to successful darting.We know there is a large herd in the Andrus School grounds and while we cannot capture deer there, it is certain that those deer wander frequently into the south part of the village. We do not have enough data yet to know if the immigration risk is fatal to the project, and that will only become clearer over many years. We do know by now that a small percentage of our deer wander from 1-20 miles away, but we don’t know if they return, since in both known instances the deer were killed by hunters.

As Deer Chew Up Suburbs, Some Say a Good Fence Is the Best Defense, New York Times, Nov 4, 2016In Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., where Mr. King has installed many deer fences in the past few years, the village government had proposed culling the deer population through lethal means. But after a fierce backlash from some residents, the mayor decided to reduce the deer population through birth control, a time-consuming process that began in early 2014. While about 50 deer have been tranquilized and injected with a contraceptive vaccine so far, residents have yet to see any marked change. And without similar efforts by neighboring Dobbs Ferry and Yonkers, it is unclear whether deer from those municipalities will simply move into Hastings-on-Hudson.

Birth Control for Bambi, UnDark, April 15, 2016Working swiftly, Pereira clips a palm-sized yellow tag, stamped with the number 41, onto the doe’s right ear. Pauli carefully removes the dart and cleans the small wound it has gouged in 41’s hindquarters, then draws a blood sample, causing the doe to kick fitfully. Finally, it’s time for the pièce de résistance: A long needle containing a milky emulsion, which Pauli plunges into the deer’s tawny flank. This is the PZP — or porcine zona pellucida — a birth control vaccine.
Over the past century, humans have created prime conditions for Odocoileus virginianus. We’ve wiped out their predators, enhanced their numbers for hunters, and planted trees and gardens on which they love to feed. With a population once as low as 500,000, the number of white-tailed deer in the United States is now more than 20 million. The unchecked abundance has produced ecological chaos.

Hastings-on-Hudson, a Westchester County village 15 miles north of New York City, is no stranger to these perils. The town averages more than 100 cases of Lyme, 20 deer-related car accidents, and a half-million dollars in vegetation damage each year.

Because immunocontraception, like tubal ligation, doesn’t prevent female deer from entering heat, Curtis is skeptical that PZP will work in open systems like Hastings. Instead, he recommends ovariectomies, which shut down hormonal cycles altogether. The phrase “rats with hooves” is not uncommon — they’ve embraced the project, perhaps out of desperation. Fluorescent flags granting biologists permission to treat deer on private property flutter on neighborhood lawns. Some homeowners have let Pauli use their garages and porches as makeshift hunting blinds. High school students are studying tree diversity in town woodlands to see whether saplings will bounce back during the experiment. “This project takes community effort as much as it takes our fieldwork,” Pereira said.

The deer have not proved equally cooperative. White-tails are wily by nature, and they turn understandably skittish around gun-packing strangers; many also linger near schools, where the team can’t dart. After three years, the biologists have vaccinated a total of 48 deer, likely a bit less than half the population; this fall, they’ll return to Hastings to administer booster shots to the does treated in 2014, identifiable by their numbered ear-tags.

White-tailed Deer Immunocontraception Project, Field Season Three: 2016, A Collaboration between the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, The Humane Society of the United States, and Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, 2016To meet the experimental and population management goals of the project we hope to capture and treat 25-30 new adult female deer this winter. Our experimental schedule also requires that we return in the fall to dart with vaccine (but NOT capture) the does first captured and treated with PZP in winter 2014.
Weather permitting, the Deer Team will be out capturing deer between February 22 and March 31 this year. To avoid conflicts with residents, and take advantage of deer activity patterns, capture efforts will take place most often in the early morning (4-7AM) and the evening (6-9PM), although there are some quieter sites on the fringes of Hillside Woods and elsewhere where deer (and darters!) may be active during the mid-afternoon hours or even late morning.

The community is getting ready to start the third year of a five-year experiment to reduce its deer population through the use of birth control on local does. Researchers hope to prevent the births of at least 27 deer this year and another 27 the following year. There are some 100 to 120 deer in the 2.9-square-mile village. “Right now, more deer are being born every year than are dying,” Griffin said. “The goal is to have a lower birth rate than attrition rate.”

Hastings-On-Hudson Sees Slow Start To Deer Contraception Program, CBS NY, April 7, 2014Hastings-on-Hudson Mayor Peter Swiderski said that out of 180 deer, only eight doe were tranquilized, tagged and injected with birth control over the monthlong program in March, seven in the final week alone. That was far short of the goal of injecting 40 to 50 does in the first two years.

Deer Fertility Control Research Project Launched in The Village of Hastings-On-Hudson, HSUS, March 20, 2014Under the protocols approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, in 2014 and 2015, highly trained staff from The HSUS will capture, ear-tag and administer a long-acting form of the PZP vaccine to approximately 60 female deer living in the Village. Treated deer will be monitored for fawns to determine vaccine effectiveness and longevity for two to three years after initial treatment.

Other Notes

Deer: Contraception, City of Bloomington, INUnlike PZP, GnRH prevents eggs from being released from the ovaries, thereby eliminating multiple estrus cycles. GonaCon™ is the only commercially-available approved GnRH vaccine.

Are we helpless?

"The native plants are tramped down, the bushes are gnawed, and my three-year-old grandson can't play in the back yard because of the deer droppings. If humans entered our property and exacted such a toll we would have legal recourse We're watching the curb appeal and property value decline at a time when our taxes are rising. We are without defense."
M. Holland, Ann Arbor resident